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1.63k reviews for:
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
Martin J. Sherwin, Kai Bird
4.33 AVERAGE
1.63k reviews for:
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
Martin J. Sherwin, Kai Bird
4.33 AVERAGE
really really glad i picked this back up. my relationship with this book is two pronged: 1) i think the us government is probably the worst villain in the world, and the systemic issues rising from ww2 of reactionary violence towards socialist movements have negative effects we still feel the intense ripples of today. and in a powerful and sad way, lewis strauss' crusade against oppenheimer set the example for how scientists are treated by the government. 2) oppy is so cool and he's so me lol. just a freak of a chill dude whose downfall was he had a lot of cool friends. i would do anything to be able to sit at a dinner with him or attend a lecture by him.
i also think that i need to read a few hiroshima/nagasaki memoirs. since that wasn't the focus of the book i won't begrudge bird's relative glossing over it, because i also think that oppy himself chose not to think about it too too much.
i also think that i need to read a few hiroshima/nagasaki memoirs. since that wasn't the focus of the book i won't begrudge bird's relative glossing over it, because i also think that oppy himself chose not to think about it too too much.
adventurous
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damn that was crazy, someone should turn this into a movie or something
(a biography so good I read through parts of the 120 pages of notes+bibliography by choice at the end)
(a biography so good I read through parts of the 120 pages of notes+bibliography by choice at the end)
A great account of an incredibly interesting and complex person. Genuinely my favourite non-ficton book this year. Unlike many biographies or even autobiographies I've read, the authors capture that Oppenheimer was human at his core. He made mistakes, had flaws, had both admirers and enemies and adapted to his situation (sometimes poorly). The Oppenheimer that came to Europe and the Oppenheimer that left Los Alamos were men with different purposes.
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
tense
slow-paced
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Worthy of that extra half star for its thoroughness and breadth of resources. Like many people, I was intrigued by the Oppenheimer film and wanted to know more about the man, the weapon he helped create, and his later opposition to nuclear armament. This covers all three topics extensively while also laying out, seemingly, every shred of information and evidence regarding Oppenheimer's supposed Communist ties. At times almost too detailed, I nevertheless finished this book with a deeper, more thoughtful view of, among other things, World War II and how US politics have shifted over the last century.